Hacking a kid's riding toy to have joystick/remote control or even drive autonomously

In this video, I look back at a CAT riding tractor that I got for free and converted to be driven using an Atari joystick. I ended up making a PCB for a microcontroller that would control the motors via a relay board and I took advantage of ethernet cables that I had hanging around to make all of the connections. Although the idea was to make this thing easier to drive (by using the joystick instead of using two sticks and a pedal), it's also a couple very short leaps to being either an autonomous vehicle or a cheap wirelessly controlled robot.
PS - boycott CAT ... www.forbes.com/sites/erictegl...

[@FixitEasyDIY]

Extraordinary video my friend. Subbed!▶

[@garnethertz]

Awesome!!